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Re: 2012 Mariano Rivera Performance Thread

RG: How did that first professional contact happen?MR: I was playing the outfield in Panama, and our best pitcher was getting killed. We had no more pitchers, so I ended up pitching, and we won the game. Two weeks after, I was coming from the beach with my parents and my wife—back then my girlfriend—and I see my two teammates, my catcher, Claudino Hernandez, and the centerfielder, Emilio Gaez, who told me, “We found you a tryout with the Yankees as a pitcher.”

Re: 2012 Mariano Rivera Performance Thread

Originally Posted by Martini6196

Is it just me or is Mo's velocity down. He was 88mph to 91mph tonight and on opening day?

I was thinking the same thing in his successful outing last night. He was setting pretty consistently at 88 or 89, only occasionally breaking 90. I was thinking last year he was setting at 91-92, but I am not a statistical guru like some of the folks on this board. So I would defer to them. But if Mo has lost another 2 MPH on top of what he had already lost from what was once a mid-90s fastball, I would worry that it will catch up with him. He deserves to go out with the style and dignity that he has maintained his entire career. I don't want to see it end badly.

Re: 2012 Mariano Rivera Performance Thread

ē Rivera has 39 saves in 45 opportunities at Camden Yards. Heís now tied with Randy Myers for the second-most saves all time in this ball park, four behind Jorge Julio. And thatís without ever playing for Baltimore! Amazing.

Re: 2012 Mariano Rivera Performance Thread

Sometimes, it is readily apparent when something special comes to an end, and sometimes it takes years to realize it. For the Yankees, it has been a nearly two-year process, and it can no longer be ignored or denied. Remember the date - November 4, 2001 - because on that date, Mariano Rivera went from automatic to merely great.

Over the past two seasons, there have been nagging injuries, trips to the DL, weeks of inactivity, all routine for a pitcher pushing 34 years old. All of last season, Mariano Rivera threw just 46 innings.

...

Mariano Rivera is not an automatic anymore, and hasn't been since Nov. 4, 2001.All things, great and small, come to an end, even for the New York Yankees.